18 
court, must be shown before the assistant to the solicitor 
will recommend further prosecution. 
Rewards are offered by Department of Agriculture regu¬ 
lation (see N. F. Manual, Regs. T-2 and T-4) in fire and 
property trespass cases. 
As a summary, then, the State law is limited to misde¬ 
meanors, but is usually speedier in action than the Fed¬ 
eral. It is necessarily used in cases covered only by it, 
and is preferable for the less important cases covered by 
both State and Federal laws, when a plea of guilty can be 
secured, and in jury actions if official cooperation and fa¬ 
vorable community sentiment are reasonably assured. 
The Federal law is preferable in flagrant cases and where 
it is desirable to get a case away from adverse local preju¬ 
dice in order to obtain trial on its merits; and it is neces¬ 
sary for violations of Federal laws or regulations not 
covered by the State law, for conspiracy cases, and when 
it is desired to offer reward. A Federal prosecution is 
much more effective as a future deterrent in aggravated 
cases, because of greater penalties in case of conviction. 
Great care should be taken, however, that the defend¬ 
ant does not get the impression that the investigating 
officers will allow him to plead guilty to a minor offense 
in a lower court rather than to take chances with their 
evidence before a Federal jury. 
Action in Federal cases must be under the direction of 
the assistant to the solicitor, and should have his counsel 
on all legal difficulties in State cases. All but the clearest 
justice’s court cases will require report on Form 87-U20, 
as provided in the manual, by the ranger or other investi¬ 
gator for decision as to action. 
Civil actions .—Civil actions brought by the United 
States must be in a Federal court, under the direction of 
the district assistant to the solicitor. When civil action 
may possibly be in addition to criminal action, the report 
on Form 874-20 must be especially explicit with respect 
to the evidence available for criminal action, since crimi¬ 
nal action instituted in advance of a civil action for the 
same offense and resulting in failure is almost certain to 
kill the chance of success of the civil suit. 
